Happy New Year everyone, no run for me today as I have come down with a nasty chest cold and I am trying to be smart...it's hard but I am managing. I so did not want my year to start off like this.

Wishing you all the best for 2013.

lamerunner

posted: 1/1/2013 at 8:43 PM

Happy New Year!

Cold and windy in the north country! DS went off to ski practice only to have the lifts close after a short time due to high winds. They had set a slalom course so the kids just hiked up and skiied down it. They got a workout...

I had planned to do another little hike today but discovered my DD had run off with not only the ski pants i said she could take but also my climbing pants and both snowshoes and microspikes. Having neither pants nor traction, a hike seemed unwise. So off to the local gym I went, paid and did 85 minutes of spin bike workouts. Knee not thrilled after but then it is seldom thrilled...

DD had a great time at the hut party. She said one of their group tried to summit Mt Adams but turned back...90 mph winds and large snow drifts. I was very lucky last weekend to run up Eisenhower. It can be pretty wild in the Whites in winter...

Well, we survived the resolution run. This morning it was pretty grim, with hard rain getting slammed against the side of the house. Which helped spawn the idea to make it a one-way, downwind run. A stroke of genius if I may say so.

But with all that rain and the persistent ice cover on the roads, traction was in question to a level where even I, the ice scoffer, decided to gear up. My friend Mo had to cancel as there were serious ice-related vehicle issues at her house. Or to put it another way...her husband ran off the driveway sideways into the trees at her house, blocking their driveway completely, and giving them a sense of mission and purpose for their new year's activities. One that, sadly, didn't involve running.

But Neal made the mistake of answering the phone when I called, despite having talked himself out of a run today. To make sure I could do it, I tore around looking for my stash of sheet metal screws, purchased for just such an occasion. After locating them, I performed prosthetic surgery on my shoes.

Prostheses successfully installed, we hit the road with a ride from a friend. We got dropped off at the top of Pike Ridge, at the highest point on the road to Lake Camp, and started with a downhill warmup. I'm always expecting to get pretty thrashed when I run with Neal, but he was pretty gentle today, and I ran a lot faster than I have been running. And managed to feel good doing it. The tailwind is obviously helpful, but the warm temperatures make such a difference it is surprising when I get out for my first run in warmer weather after a cold snap.

But all that preparation with the ice cleat additions to the shoes proved unneeded. On the drive out, the rain had just turned to snow, and we had a layer of snow on the ground with good traction the whole way. But I'm sure it didn't hurt me to have been ready for worse conditions, and I only threw two screws on the run. We ran through the more scenic section without me remembering to get out the camera/phone. By the time I had remembered, we were passing through the military base, so today's photos are post-industrial artwork of a special kind. And the first one is a test for visually-induced motion sickness. I thought it was pretty funny when I got a chance to look at it, so if you're squeamish, might want to scroll past this one...

I ended up with 2232.4 miles for 2012, which is down 238 miles from the year before. I need to stop being such a slacker....

Yeah right, Holly. I was just thinking you're such a slacker ...

6 fairly good Tinman tempo miles to start off my 2013.

I followed that up with 2 hours of tree cutting and trimming. Things grow like a weed down here and the trees were taking over the jogging trail behind my house. So I decided to be proactive and get ahead of the nasty-gram I was sure to get soon from the City.

I'm going to seriously regret the tree workout in about 2 days.

Bill

"Some are the strong, silent type. You can't put your finger on exactly what it is they bring to the table until you run without them and then you realize that their steadiness fills a hole that leaks energy in their absence." - Kristin Armstrong